Acupuncture helped Duce Staley's hamstring heal. He only wishes he could use such medicine to save his father from dying.

Staley flew back to Columbia, S.C., soon after the Steelers' final minicamp practice yesterday to be home with the father he barely knew. It took Lannie Staley's terminal cancer to bring father and son together after two decades of separation brought on by divorce.

Yesterday may have been Mother's Day but, for now, each day is Father's Day for Duce Staley as he makes up for time lost and time that will never be.